Wanted: Men Who Will Model Christ

“WANTED: MEN WHO WILL MODEL CHRIST —

AND MEN WHO WILL FOLLOW THE MODEL”

(Philippians 3:17)

“Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample” (King James Version)

“Brethren, together follow my example and observe those who live after the pattern we have set you” (Amplified Bible translation)

This text might immediately throw a shallow Christian into protest. He might say, “Who butan egotist would say, ‘Brethren, join in imitating me’?” However, this assessment overlooks several very important facts from the life of the Apostle Paul, as well as several important facts revealed in the context of this verse.

Fact Number One: the moral confusion of the world of Paul’s day is known to have been very great. People needed moral and spiritual examples that could be trusted. Paul did not back down from this duty, and he encouraged other believers to also assume the responsibility of Christian example.

Fact Number Two: the context of this verse corrects the possibility of a charge of egotism against the one who wrote these words. Paul has just stated in no uncertain terms that he was not perfect. “I have not already reached the goal of the Christian life, nor have I become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (verse 12). In fact, Paul clearly indicates that the only worthy example of a Christian is the person who admits he is not perfect but is nonetheless pressing on. He has just said that he personally has no righteousness of his own, that any righteousness he has is provided by Another (verse 9). Thus, the only righteousness others are to respect in Paul is the very righteousness of Christ Himself.

Then, look just beyond our text (verse 17), and read verses 18 and 19: “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and tell you now in tears, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.” After reading those words, it becomes quite obvious why Paul wrote what he did in verse 17. There were plenty of bad examples to observe, but all men (including Christians) need good examples.

Fact Number Three: in this verse, Paul called on the Philippian Christians to imitate not only him, but also other exemplary Christians. Hear the words again: “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example.” The New American Standard Version says, “And observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.” So Paul guards both himself and his disciples in this statement. He guards himself against the pride of thinking that he is the only exemplary Christian on the premises, and he guards them against following him exclusively, which might tend to create a cult. Nevertheless, Paul lovingly and boldly asks them to imitate and follow him.

I. THE PRACTICAL METHOD OF MAKING DISCIPLES

Here we see the practical method of making disciples. Just as it did with Jesus, disciple-making begins with a model, a mandate, and a method. The model provides the incarnational example of the process. The mandate clearly shows that disciple-making is the responsibility of each Christian. The method combines the model and the mandate in a practicalprocedure, and shows how disciple-making is to be accomplished.

A. The model is in personal example

The New Testament model for disciple-making is in personal example, and each Christian is expected to supply such an example. Christian, the truth is that people will either take you as an exampleof Christ, or as an exemption from Christ. You cannot escape the exerting of influence, the setting of example. D. L. Moody was probably correct when he said, “Of one hundred men, one will read the Bible, and the other ninety-nine will read the Christian.” You see, everything we say is a profession of faith, and everything we do is a promotion of faith—or these things are preventions of faith in the lives of others. Our words and works are either an encouragement in favor of good, or of less good, or of evil. We daily influence our intimates and the immediate circle of associates just beyond them, whether we are conscious of our influence or not. A stone thrown into a pond does not merely disturb the water in the spot where it hits it. Around that point of impact, great concentric circles form. We simply cannot control our influence, though we certainly can largely control the kind of influence we exert.

“I have a little shadow, That goes in and out with me;

And what can be the use of him, Is often more than I can see.”

Behind these ideas rests a gigantic law of spiritual life, and it is this: Christianity is propositional, to be sure, but its first attraction to human beings is generally personal. It is instructional, but it is first incarnational. Historian Robert Wilken said it wisely when he said, “Before people are doers, they are first spectators.” Christianity is not merely audible, it is also visual and tangible (see I John 1:1-3). So it must have models as well as mouthpieces; it must have pacesetters as well as proclaimers; it must have examples as well as exhorters. This is one of the roles Jesus plays for mankind — “leaving us an example, to follow in His steps” (I Peter 2:21).

This is a key role, also, for every disciple-maker. He cannot expect his disciples to be what he is not, or to do what he does not do, or to go where he does not go. It is true that the disciple-maker’s life must not be the end of the disciple’s quest, but merely the example of one seeking to be a follower of Christ. But it is example that gives credibility to leadership. Jesus exemplified the standard of disciple-making before He exhorted it.

Reconsider for a moment the characteristics of a disciple. A disciple is one who: (l) has a regular relationship with his disciple-maker, his teacher (compare Mark 3:14a); (2) receives revelation (systematic truth) from his disciple-maker, his teacher (see Matthew 10:5); (3) repeats the truth received to other potential disciples (II Timothy 2:2); (4) shows increasing resemblance to his disciple-maker, his teacher (see Luke 6:40); and (4) becomes a reflection of his teacher in both concept and conduct. So a disciple-maker must be a model and a pace-setter, and he must expect his disciples to follow him and his example. Indeed, he must humbly invite them to do so, as Paul does in our text.

B. The mandate is in personal exhortation

Clearly, the New Testament mandate to disciple-making is presented in the form of personal exhortation. Let’s examine our verse more closely, in order to be sure that we understand the dimensions of responsibility that are presented here. Indeed, we must recognize that the responsibility is two-fold. Paul had to show it and say it, and the Philippian readers had to see it and submit to it. The two key verbs, “join in following my example,” and “observe those who so walk,” are both in the present tense. Again, we must note that Paul boldly urged Christians to follow the example of the testimony and technique of other Christians. This means that the following of right examples should be the consistent and continuous activity of every Christian. It also suggests that most Christians need to be encouraged by another Christian to do this, or the concept will lapse in their minds.

Pastor Rick Yohn, in his book, Living Securely In an Unstable World, wrote, “In my later teen years, I had the privilege of being supported by a number of mature Christian men. They spent time praying with me, counseling me, and encouraging me in my Christian walk. I developed a boldness for witnessing by following the example of one man. I established a consistent prayer life by following the example of another. I developed a deep desire for studying the Scriptures by following the example of a third. The more I associated myself with such men, the more Iexperienced a personal spiritual growth and the sanctifying work of God’s Holy Spirit.” (The italics are mine, not the author’s). Christian, you are following somebody’s example at this very moment. You spend your minutes, days, weeks, months, and years living out the influence that people have exerted on your life.

Note that you are to give positive and selective attention to those who set the right example for you and others. “Mark them which so walk,” Paul says. The Greek word translated “mark” is the word “skopos,” from which we derive our English word, “scope.” Perhaps you have heard someone say, “We scoped it out,” referring to a careful and critical examination of a certain object. The word means to “keep an eye on.” In Romans 16:17, this word is used for an examination that leads you to avoid something, but here, the examination is made in order to appreciate and imitate something.

Look also at the word, “example” in our text. It is a big, big word. The Greek word is “tupon,” from which we get our word “type.” The word “type” is a special word, and it has a specialized meaning in the New Testament. It comes from a root that means “to strike,” and it describes the creating of an impression by striking the image into a receptive surface. Technically, it was the impress or figure made by a seal or a die, such as the die that is used in minting new coins.

This was the same word Thomas used when he said about Jesus, “Except I shall see in His hands the print (the ‘tupon’— the “impression”) of the nails, and put my finger into the print (‘impression’) of the nails . . . I will not believe” (John 20:25). Thomas was saying that the marks of crucifixion in the body of Jesus were all he had to go by, and all other impressions were not to be trusted. This is the word translated “example” in our text. The example of a Spirit-walking Christian is the only trustworthy impression most people will ever have. However, it is evident that Christians do not automatically set a Christian example for others to follow. Unless we are “imitators” of Christ in the fullest New Testament sense, we will leave false impressions with others as to Who Jesus is and what Christianity is all about. And note this: the impressions we make are the result of a die already cast, a Life already lived — and we have been stamped with the Image of it!

So a Christian must constantly ask himself, “Is my life worth copying?” Would I want to livein heaven among a society of Christians who have lived their lives by the impression I have made onthem? The word translated “example” suggests a “copy-pattern” or a “mold.” Close examination of Paul’s letters in the New Testament will disclose that this idea is quite common in his writings. In I Thessalonians 1:7, Paul says, “You were examples to all that believed in Macedonia and Achaia.” He made the same appeal to the Corinthians that he presents in our text when he said, “I beseech you, be ye followers of me” (I Corinthians 4:16). And again in I Corinthians 11:1, which proves the point we made earlier about Paul’s humility: “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” There is Paul’s guard, there is his proviso, there is his protection, there is his qualification — follow me, but only as I follow Christ. In II Thessalonians 3:7-9, Paul put the appeal even more powerfully: “You know how (why) you ought to follow us: for we did not behave ourselves in a disorderly fashion among you: neither did we eat any man’s bread without return; but we worked with labor and pain night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: Nor because we have no rights, but to makes ourselves an example unto you to follow us.” So the Christian disciple-maker and teacher should make self-conscious effort to provide the right example, and to appeal to his disciples to follow that example. Like the teacher who writes the “copy-pattern” on the chalkboard and assigns the pupils to copy it, Paul places the pattern of his own life in Christ before the Philippian Christians, and asks them to “copy” it.

Johann Gutenberg is credited with building the first printing press. Living and working in the Rhineland of Germany in the 1440s, he gave to the world one of the most important tools ever invented. Before that time, all copies of information — records, facts, etc. — were made by hand. You see, Mr. Modern, there was a time when fax machines did not exist! I heard about a man in a Memphis business who was trying to fax a message to the west coast, but he accidentally got his tie caught in the fax machine—and ended up in Los Angeles himself! Before moveable type, before typewriters, before Xerox, before computers, before fax, there were people who had to copy documents by hand if the documents were to be preserved. This is the way the earliest transmissions of the Bible were made. The copyist had to be very careful to copy everything correctly. In Jesus’ time, the scribes mentioned in the Bible were very important people. They were the copyists who were responsible to preserve and transmit the text of the Bible.

The scribe was himself carefully trained for this task. Jesus referred in Matthew 13:52 to “the scribe who is instructed,” and the word translated “instructed” is the verb form of the word “disciple.” “Every scribe who is discipled.” Intensive training was required for the copyist’s technical job to be done well. In his training, the master scribe or teacher would give the disciple, the apprentice, the aspiring young scribe, a piece of paper with the letters of certain words written picturesquely across the top. These letters contained every “stroke” (remember the word, “tupon”) that the copyist would be expected to make. The young copyist would practice copying the words again and again, until he had mastered the printing of those letters. He literally followed the “example” (copied the“tupon”) that was set before him. After he had followed the example enough times, the stroke of the pen came naturally to him.

Dear Christians, all of us are copies, and copyists, and then we are responsible to be copy-patterns for someone else to copy! We are to follow the examples of worthy Christians until the “tracing of the strokes” of the Christian life become natural and automatic in our own lives. We are responsible to carefully choose the examples we will follow. These examples will play an incredibly large part in making us who we will finally become.

So we see that our text combines the proper model (Paul and others) and the proper mandate (the urgent encouragement to follow their example) for making disciples. Both the model and the mandate are essential. If I only see a model of the Christian life, I will not be able to follow it with full intelligence. If I only hear the mandate, I will think it is too visionary and impossible to receive my serious consideration and commitment. Both are essential.

II. THE PERSONAL MODEL FOR DISCIPLE-MAKERS

This text also suggests that disciple-makers also need (and have) personal models. The original model of disciple-making was Jesus Himself. From all eternity, He had been His Father’s disciple. When He came to the earth, Jesus taught a small group of men and made them responsible to teach others. He made disciples, each of whom was then responsible to make other disciples. We could say that He not only made disciples, He made disciple-makers, and they then trained other disciples, who in turn would also become disciple-makers. So an ever-enlarging network of trained disciple-makers emerged from the training process which Jesus initiated with His Twelve.

A generation later, a disciple-making leader emerged in the Christian movement who functioned in the Spirit and Vision of his Master. Though Paul had apparently never seen Jesus in the flesh, he was so influenced by His disciples that he learned about being a disciple of Christ (remember Stephen, Acts 7) and building disciples (remember Barnabas, Paul’s disciple-maker) from them. In turn, he said to a young disciple-maker, “The things which you have heard from me, the same things commit to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (II Timothy 2:2). We must see this as simply an extension of Jesus’ own life. Jesus said, in effect, “The things that I, Jesus, have heard from My Father, I have committed to (invested in) twelve faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” Our text for this study was written by that second-generation man who was a crucial “link” in the chain of disciple-making. Just what kind of example did he set? What kind of model was he? What copy-pattern can we detect in him? Well, it is very interesting that you asked that question! The third chapter of Philippians gives us a profound portrait of Paul. In order to see the dimensions of his example, let’s see what kind of man he was. We will use the verses preceding our text as our foundation.